Marjorie Dearstone Dickinson, Licensed Massage Therapist: April 2010

     I burst out laughing when I read Diet Coke's 1998 slogan, "You Are What You Drink!" Yes, you ARE what you consume. In fact, seven years from now, you will be walking around in an entirely new body. That is the amount of time it takes for almost all the cells in your body to turn over and make themselves anew. As philosophers and scientists have taught us, nothing comes from nothing... so this new building material is coming from WHATEVER YOU ARE INGESTING.

      For those of you addicted to what I call "legal crack" a.k.a. Diet Coke, let's look at the chemicals (as formulated in the United States) that you are using as your building materials, listed in order of greatest to least amount:

Why are all these things so bad? They don't sound that awful and you can pronounce them, right? Wrong. Let's break it down.

Carbonated Water- Osteoporosis and esophageal cancer, anyone?
The carbonation in all soft drinks causes calcium loss in the bones through a three-stage process:

The carbonation irritates the stomach.
The stomach "cures" the irritation the only way it knows how. It adds the only antacid at its disposal: calcium. It gets this from the blood.
The blood, now low on calcium, replenishes its supply from the bones. If it did not do this, muscular and brain function would be severely impaired.

Healthy human bodies should be slightly alkaline at a pH of 7.365. Whenever your body moves away from 7.365, your system takes action to move you back to that value.
Water in most areas has a value of 7 or neutral. Carbonated drinks have a value of about 2.8, but the difference isn't just 4.2. The pH scale values vary exponentially. As the scale moves from 7 to 6, the difference is multiplied by 10. So your Diet Coke is approaching 100,000 times more acidic than water.

Caramel Color- Has been shown to produce inflammation in the tissue of laboratory animals. If you are training, you have enough inflammation going on.

Aspartame-Where to begin?...how about it has been linked to Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, metabolic syndrome (weight gain), ADD and ADHD, lymphoma, brain tumors, brain lesions, hormone disruption...need I continue?

Phosphoric Acid-Added to give the drink its "bite", this acid, ironically, softens your teeth and turns them YELLOW. Ever put a tooth in a glass of Diet Coke? Over time, the tooth will begin to become become soft and brittle by leaching out the calcium. This process happens to all bones in your body.

Potassium Benzoate-This is used to increase shelf-life. In the presence of heat, light, or over time, this chemical turns into BENZENE, a carcinogen that has been linked to leukemia.

Natural Flavors- How "natural" are these? So natural that Coke won't give consumers their origin. It's their dirty little secret.

Citric Acid- Contains traces of MSG--a neurotoxin. Plus, more acid. Hello, gastric lining erosion!

Caffeine- Check this out how SERIOUS this legal DRUG is:

Spiders were fed flies that had been dipped in different drugs. Here are the webs that resulted:

Drug Free Spider Web

Peyote

LSD

Speed

Marijuana

CAFFEINE

Sleeping Pills

How does your Diet Coke affect the web that you spin each day?

So, stay hydrated, drink plenty of clean, spring water (1/2 your body weight in ounces per day). If you're going to drink a soda, there are PLENTY of healthier options. Try soda made with Stevia (plant based sweetener that is actually good for your liver) or cane sugar.

Buy 0 calorie soda with Stevia now at Native Sun and save 3 bucks!

Further reading:

http://www.emaxhealth.com/11/586.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/nutrition/05symp.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/13/health/webmd/main701408.shtml

http://www.mindconnection.com/library/health/softdrinks.htm http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/soft-drinks-america.html

"You Are What You Drink" -Diet Coke's Advertising Slogan, '98